1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a connector having a moving plate adapted to be in a contacting state and a non-contacting state in a connector body.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
A conventional connector known to the art aims at no-load insertion and removal of an IC package to and from an IC socket and includes a movable plate mounted on a connector body, and an causing lever for operating a lateral movement of the movable plate, so that a contacting state and a released state can be produced by the lateral movement of the movable plate.
By means of pushing down the operating lever, the movable plate is laterally moved in one direction along the upper surface of the connector body. The lateral movement of the movable plate causes the contacts of the connector body to be displaced to an open state, thereby forming a contact released state relative to the IC leads of an IC package placed on the movable plate so that no-load insertion of the IC package to the IC socket can be obtained. On the other hand, by releasing the pushing down condition, the movable plate is urged by restoring force of the contacts and laterally moved in the opposite direction, thereby producing a contacting state relative to the IC leads.
In recent years, a robot was used in many cases for operation of the operating lever in order to enhance workability and to save energy. Therefore, the operating lever is required to have a construction by which the operating lever can easily be pushed down by means of a vertical movement of a robot.
However, the conventional connector has the following problems. That is, a lever is used as means (operating lever) for moving the movable plate in the lateral direction with a small amount of force. However, the movement of a lever is a pivotal movement, while the movement of a robot is a vertical movement. Since the moving directions are different, the pushing down position of the lever is limited and as a result, it is difficult to operate the robot effectively. Moreover, where a plurality of operating levers are provided on the connector body, these levers must be individually pushed down at the same time.
The above-mentioned problems also arise where an operating lever or levers are manually operated.
Furthermore, in the above-mentioned prior art, when the contacts are displaced by the reciprocal movement of the movable plate, an electric part mounted on the movable plate is also moved following the movement of the movable plate and therefore, the mounting position of the electric part is changed.
In recent years, since the operation of removing an electric part, especially an IC package, is made by an automation device such as a robot or the like, the accessing position of the automation device must be changed if the mounting position is changed. As a result, there occurs a failure in removal of the electric part and male terminals are deformed because the electric part is removed while in its inclined state. Moreover, the change of the mounting position causes the contacting position and the contact released position between the male terminals and contacts to become unstable. As a result, reliability of the contacting relation is badly jeopardized.
The present invention has been accomplished in order to overcome the above-mentioned problems inherent in the prior art.